Echuca Racing Club to offer free community event on Melbourne Cup Day

Echuca Racing Club is hopeful of bringing some joy back to its community on Melbourne Cup Day. Here’s the plan.

Sport has a wonderful way of bringing together and it’s something Echuca Racing Club is looking to do.

The club has announced its Melbourne Cup Day event will now be free to attend as the community looks to rebuild from devastating flooding.

Speaking to Leader on Wednesday, ERC general manager Garry Armstrong revealed the November 1 meeting would become a community event.

“At this stage we’re still looking to race,” he said.

“The committee met earlier this week and decided to proceed with the day as a community event. There will be free things for the kids and everyone. We’ll be offering free buses to the club.

“We want to give people half-a-day to take a break from thinking about sandbags or anything along those lines. The community has been extremely supportive of each other during this tough period and people deserve a break.

“We’re in no position to be having a party but we want to give people the chance to sit back and relax with friends and family.

“We want to be doing what we can for the community.”

The club has also offered refunds to patrons who had previously purchased packages for the event which were valued at up to $200.

“We stopped taking bookings when we could see the town was going to be impacted,” Armstrong said.

“It wasn’t appropriate for us to keep advertising, there were much bigger issues for people to worry about.”

Tuesday’s meeting is expected to be a seven-race card with nominations still open for cards.

Bairnsdale, Mansfield, Mildura and Wangaratta will also host race meetings on the same day.